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Wednesday, 29 April 2015

X-RAYS

As a child, I have numerous episodes of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs); from sinusitis to tonsilitis and so on, (still do occasionally). Unfortunately, it was never diagnosed, the doctors then just kept giving me lots and lots of pink cough syrup. I also remember having repeated chest x-rays.

As I grew up and became a medical student and then a medical doctor, I realized these must be what I'd suffered from as a child since I saw the same symptoms as I had. These days though, we have more specialists and more diagnostic tools and it makes diagnosing easier. I learnt that the x-rays needed for the diagnosis of URTIs especially sinusitis and tonsilitis aren't just chest x-rays but also x-rays of the postnasal space and the paranasal sinuses.

X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×1016 Hz to 3×1019 Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays.

X-rays have numerous uses, medical and others, for example it can be used for airport security. In medicine, it has both diagnostic (x-rays, mammography, CT scans, e.t.c.) and therapeutic (radiotherapy) uses. Be careful though, they can also be harmful as they cause cancers as they have been classified as carcinogen. Before a pregnant women does an x-ray, the benefits or the x-ray should be weigh against its risks. For further reading, go here.

10 comments:

Because I had scoliosis when I was a teen and underwent corrective spine surgery, I have endured more X-rays and scans than I can count. I was always worried about the radiation and the impact those X-rays would have on me.

I did have an X-ray when I was about thirteen. I'd been on crutches for six months about a year before and was getting pain in my hips and back which they thought was related to that. I never actually got any results from it or got to see the pictures, so I have no idea if there was anything wrong.